In brief: UN chief visits as quake-hit

Huge piles of wreckage and tonnes of rotting fish and other debris blanketing the ground could turn coastal towns shattered by Chile's earthquake and tsunami into nests of infection, doctors have warned.

Huge piles of wreckage and tonnes of rotting fish and other debris blanketing the ground could turn coastal towns shattered by Chile's earthquake and tsunami into nests of infection, doctors have warned.

As calls for medicine and shelter grew, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon flew into the heavily damaged city of Concepcion aboard a Chilean air force plane yesterday.

"Remember that we are with you . . . our hearts are with you," Ban told reporters.

Poker event raiders steal €1m jackpot

A heavily armed group stormed a poker tournament in a German luxury hotel yesterday afternoon and made off with the jackpot.

Several participants at the tournament in Berlin's Grand Hyatt hotel were slightly injured when they panicked and fled. The jackpot for the tournament stood at €1m, according to a European Poker Tour website.

Murder-suicide sees note left in blood

A man stabbed his ex-partner's mother to death then left a chilling message in blood before leaping from the top floor of a car park early yesterday morning.

His 66-year-old victim was knifed at her semi-detached bungalow in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, on Friday.

He also stabbed her 36-year-old son.

The 40-year-old man then travelled 30 miles to a multi-storey car park in Manchester, where he jumped to his death from the eighth floor soon after midnight.

Iceland's voters were asked to approve an agreement on repaying the UK and the Netherlands after they compensated savers in their countries who lost money in online accounts run by failed Icelandic bank Landsbanki.

Korean game addicts 'starved child'

A South Korean couple addicted to an internet game about raising a virtual child were arrested for neglecting their real three-month-old daughter and letting her starve to death, news reports said.

The couple spent up to six hours every day at internet cafes in Suwon, a city just south of Seoul, and bottle-fed their baby only once a day, it was reported.

26 killed after truck's brakes fail

A truck loaded with people going to an ancient Tibetan monastery crashed yesterday when brakes failed, killing 26 people. The truck was heading for Samye Monastery, the oldest in Tibet, in its Shannan prefecture.

Taliban leader 'killed in air strike'

A top Pakistani Taliban commander close to al-Qaeda is believed to have been killed in an army air strike, officials said yesterday.

Maulvi Faqir Mohammed was believed to be among a number of insurgents killed on Friday at a sprawling compound in the northwest Mohmand tribal region.

News workers reject cartoon apology

Thirty-eighT staff members of the Danish daily Politiken issued a letter yesterday saying they were against the newspaper's apology for offending Muslims by reprinting a cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad with a bomb-shaped turban.

In a letter published in the newspaper, the editorial staff said: "Politiken has nothing to apologise for."